Anything Goes
by INeverExplainAnything
Summary: "Good authors too who once knew better words, now only use four-letter words writing prose. Anything goes." Just a fun little one shot set between Edelweiss and the Party. A little gift for WeakHeart.


Anything Goes

A/N Just a little bit of fun! This is a gift for WeakHeart, to make up for being a horrible person with my current story haha I hope you like it =)

"In olden days, a glimpse of stocking  
Was looked on as something shocking.  
But now, God knows,  
Anything goes.  
Good authors too who once knew better words,  
Now only use four-letter words  
Writing prose.  
Anything goes.  
If driving fast cars you like,  
If low bars you like,  
If old hymns you like,  
If bare limbs you like,  
If Mae West you like,  
Or me undressed you like,  
Why, nobody will oppose." _  
_\- Cole Porter _, Anything Goes_

* * *

As Maria stood behind a large shelf, slowly putting away books used from the morning's lessons, she saw Liesl hurry in and head down towards the back of the library. Curious, Maria followed and paused when she saw Liesl come to a small alcove, where she bent down and hurriedly shoved something behind a few large tomes.

"Liesl?" she questioned gently.

The girl spun around quickly with a small gasp, "Oh! Fraulein Maria, I didn't hear you."

With a questioning look, Maria asked, "Is everything okay?"

"Um-ah, yes," Liesl said, with a overly large smile, "I, uh, just had to return a dictionary."

"You seem in an awful hurry," Maria said.

"Uh," Liesl hesitated, "Well, I didn't ask Father if I could borrow anything and you know that he's like."

It was a pretty lame explanation; Maria knew that the Captain was less strict about the library these days. And she was sure he wouldn't mind if Liesl borrowed something as simple as a dictionary. She was about to open her mouth to question her further when the clock tolled the hour.

"Oh, I better get to bed, it's getting quite late" Liesl said and with a flash of a smile, scurried out of the room.

Putting the strange incident behind her, Maria finished placing the books away and then headed for the Captain's study for their evening meeting. After knocking politely on the door, and hearing his invitation to enter, she stepped into the room.

He wasn't alone; Herr Detweiler was lounging on the leather couch in a corner of the room, sipping on a glass of amber liquid. He raised the glass at her as she entered.

"Good evening," he said, "What brings you into the spiders den?"

Maria's brow furrowed in confusion as she looked between the two men, "I'm sorry?"

"Ignore Max, Fraulein," said the Captain, "It's the best thing to do."

Georg sent Max an irritated look and gestured for Maria to take a seat. He was getting a little tired with Max's not so subtle insinuations when it came to the little governess. While Max was certainly not wrong, there was no way Georg was going to give him the satisfaction of being correct.

 _"So you're telling me you see that lovely young lady every night, in your study, alone?" Max said, an eyebrow raised suggestively._

 _"Yes, Max," he said exasperatedly, "She gives me a report on how the children are going with their studies. It's completely innocent, I don't understand what you are trying to accomplish with these lewd insinuations."_

 _"Ah, so you just lure her in here on the pretence of having an "innocent" discussion."_

 _"Max!" Georg reprimanded, his patience running thin._

 _Max just shrugged and took a long sip of his brandy before saying, "Georg, I've seen the way you look at that little nun. Nothing innocent there."_

 _"So you think I am stealing her virtue every night? I think that is more a slander on her than me, Max."_

 _"No, I don't believe that."_

 _"Well, what-"_

 _"I believe you think about stealing it every night."_

And then Maria had knocked on the door and here they all were: Max with his stupid know-it-all look on his face, Georg trying not to give in to the temptation to throttle Max and Maria looking utterly confused by the looks the two men were giving each other.

"Um," Maria began as she took a seat across from his desk, 'Well, er, the children have all finished their projects today."

"Projects?" came Max's voice.

Turning to Herr Detweiler, Maria said, "Yes, they are all selected a small project to complete. Something they all enjoy but is still a learning experience."

"Well done, Fraulein," said the Captain, giving Maria a smile, "I look forward to hearing all about them."

"Oh, sir, they are so excited to show you!" Maria said excitedly.

And she couldn't help the excitement; it had been wonderful seeing the children flourish doing what they love. It had also been a learning experience for Maria too, the children all telling her about their different projects. She knew they were all eager to show their father what they had achieved and she just knew that any praise or interest from him was worth a hundreds times more than any kind words from Maria.

After then giving a brief recap on the rest of their studies, improvements and problems, she noticed that the atmosphere seemed to shift a little. When she had walked in, it had been a little tense. She had no idea what the Captain and Herr Detweiler had been discussing but she felt like she'd missed out on the punch line of joke – not that the Captain had looked very amused.

But now, the tension had eased and for a moment she even forgot Herr Detweiler was in the room before he made a comment about the children's great singing talent.

"Such a shame you won't let me use them in the festival, Georg," Herr Detweiler said, swirling the contents of the drink in his hand.

The Captain gave his friend another irritated glare and said, "Max, do not start that again. I may decide to withdraw my invitation to stay here."

"Ah, remember you didn't invite me? Can't rescind it if you never sent it!" Max said jovially.

Maria couldn't help but giggle at that and then hastily covered her mouth as the Captain turned to glare at her.

"Do not encourage him, Fraulein," he said, though she could see he was slightly amused.

"Sorry, Captain," Maria said pleasantly, "Anyway, I best be off. Good night to you both."

"Good night, Fraulein," Georg said, watching her leave.

He saw Max go to open his mouth but Georg raised a hand to silence him, "Don't say another word, Max, or I will tell Frau Schmidt to restrict your access to the cellar."

"Oh, come now, Georg," Max whined, "And they call me a beast!"

 **xxxXXXxxx**

Closing the study door behind her, Maria started heading towards the staircase but paused as she passed the open library door. After a moment's hesitation, she ducked into the room. Winding her way through a few high shelves, she came across the small alcove at the back. Kneeling down, she pulled one of the large tomes back and retrieved the item she'd seen Liesl hide behind it.

Why she was doing this was beyond her, but she was burning with curiosity. It turned out to be a book and as she looked at the cover, she felt a blush colour her face. She'd never seen, let alone read, one of these kinds of books before. It wasn't really the kind of thing you'd find in a strict Benedictine convent that was for sure. The cover depicted a very handsome man, with a very well defined chest while a young woman clung to him desperately, her chest pressed up against him with her long blonde hair trailing down her back. It was highly absurd but Maria couldn't deny she was curious to see what it was about.

Opening the book, she started to read and found it was a usual sort of adventure/romance story. The man was a Commander of the British Navy, who was in charge of safely escorting the young Duchess through pirated waters. Of course they fall in love while adventuring through the seas, battling evil pirates and sea monsters. Maria was so engrossed in the novel until it took a different turn and suddenly the characters were doing a lot more than just kissing.

She felt her face suffuse with heat and snapped the book shut. Breathing deeply for a moment, she then ever so slowly opened it up again and kept reading. And then she shut it again, put it down and stared at it.

It was just paper - just a book. But Maria was pretty sure a postulant should not be reading about that sort of thing. Writhing tongues and pulsing…things. But, it's not like she was _doing_ anything – she was just reading it. At this thought, she felt her face flush again and unbidden an image of the Captain rose in her mind and she mentally shook herself. She needed to stop this line of thought immediately.

But it was happening more frequently. Ever since the night of the puppet show, her thoughts had taken a different direction in regards to her employer. Seeing him strumming gently on the guitar and singing had been captivating. It was a side of him she hadn't seen of him before. Obviously, she had heard him sing briefly to his children on the day he had returned from Vienna with his guests, but that had been different. As he sung, he had looked at her – as if he was singing to her and her alone. And the look in his eyes had been something Maria didn't quite understand but her body had reacted to it. Quite strongly at that.

While she may be a postulant, she wasn't stupid. She knew she found him attractive and who could blame her? The Captain was a very attractive man and it would be pointless to deny that he wasn't.

It was harmless, she told herself. She wasn't a nun _just_ yet. After all, she still sung and danced everywhere, and then there was all the lavish meals and new dresses she was enjoying in the villa – she would be giving up all those things when she returned to Nonnberg. So why shouldn't she be able to daydream just a little? It wasn't harming anyone. Yes, it was perfectly harmless.

Picking the book up again, she opened it up and continued to read about the steamy encounter between the two main characters. Occasionally stopping to blush, Maria found that she beginning to feel slightly overwhelmed as she read the story. But it wasn't an entirely bad feeling, she just felt warm and there was an odd sensation, like she being pulled by a tide, low in her stomach. In her wild imagination, she could picture herself as the duchess the handsome commander had seduced in his lavish ship. And she could not stop her mind from picturing the Captain, his hands holding her close and his mouth on hers. She could practically feel his hands gliding up her thighs, his hot mouth on her neck and him whispering-

"What have you got there?"

With a cry of surprise, Maria snapped the book shut and hurriedly shot up onto her feet. With the book behind her back, she turned and came face to face with the Captain. He was excruciatingly close to her, and she felt her face go red as the mad blush made an appearance.

"Nothing!" she said, and regretted it the instant the word left her mouth.

With a raised eyebrow, Georg simply held out his hand in a silent gesture for her to hand over the offending novel, even though he was perfectly aware of what she had been reading when he had snuck up behind her. He could see that her face had flushed red in embarrassment. She had been so engrossed in her book that she hadn't even noticed him looming over her as she sat on her knees reading.

After leaving a thoroughly sloshed Max in his study, he had ventured past the library and noticed the door ajar and light on. He had not expected to find Maria reading a novel, and certainly not one about carnal pleasures. While Max had been spot on about his thoughts towards his children's governess, he was certainly not insane enough to act on them. But it was always fun to rile her up, it gave him a strange satisfaction to watch her pretty face flush. It made him wonder if it would flush in the same way if he touched her the way her debonair commander was pleasing the young lady in her story.

"Fraulein?" he asked.

Taking a small step back, Maria felt the bookcase behind her and blindly grabbed another book. She shoved the romance book on the shelf and offered the one she had just unseeingly picked up.

"Hmm," he said, opening the book and turning a few pages.

Maria tried to look at the cover of the book, but his hand was covering the title and all she could see was that it was leather bound. She tried to still the mad beating of her heart.

"Enjoying this were you, Fraulein? You seemed very… enthralled by it," he went on with a quirk of his lips.

"Umm, yes?" Maria said, trying to not fidget with her hands.

She was very much aware of how close he was to her, and she could smell him - the scent lingering in her heightened state. It was making her feel very nervous, and she also had the feeling that he could see her thoughts as if they were transcribed above her head. It was all in that infuriating smirk on his face.

"I didn't know you could read Italian," he said conversationally.

"Uhh, not very well," she said.

"Hmm, so you thought reading an Italian dictionary would help, yes?"

"Yes," she agreed gratefully.

Georg was having too much fun and so he said in a serious tone, "Interesting, though I don't think there is any Italian in that book you were reading so why you'd need a dictionary is beyond me, Fraulein."

"What?" she gasped.

Grinning like a tiger, the Captain reached past her and grabbed the book she had hastily shoved behind her. Maria tried to concentrate on a point past his shoulder but his face was agonizingly close to her own and she was sure he would be able to feel her flustered breath against his neck. Quickly holding her breath, she waited for him to pull back and he flourished the book in front of her, his grin wide and his eyes full of delighted mischief.

"This one, Fraulein," he said, drawing out every syllable.

Maria swallowed and said, "Oh." And then rallying herself, she went on, "I don't see what is so amusing, Captain."

"I just didn't think this would be your sort of reading material, that's all," he said, his face still a picture of amusement.

"Well…" Maria said, "I'm not a nun just yet so I don't see why I can't read a romance novel if I want to."

"Yes," he said, "I guess you've got to experience life while you can. Anything goes, right, Fraulein?"

"Right," Maria agreed, trying to remain calm.

He handed the book to her and she had to stop herself from automatically snatching it from him. Instead, she took it carefully and maintained her eye contact, she was not going to back down from him.

"Enjoy it, then," the Captain said and turned to leave but then he stopped and faced her again, "Though, if you ever need any help experiencing life, Fraulein, you know where to find me."

The expression on her face was absolutely priceless and he savoured the sight of her cheeks flushing bright red and her blue eyes widening.

"I'm sorry?" she said, her face a mask of panic and also something else entirely.

"The Italian, Fraulein," he explained, "I can teach you a little if you like."

The relief washed off her but she couldn't shake the slight disappointment as well, which was ridiculous.

"Oh, right," Maria said, trying to keep her voice even, "Uh, thank you, Captain."

Inclining his head towards her in a small bow, he left without another word, though she was sure she heard the echoes of deep laughter floating down the aisles of books.

* * *

A/N Nothing like a bit of lighthearted fun! I hope you all now have that song stuck in your head, it's been in mine for the past three days.

Disclaimer: I do not own TSOM except for on DVD and an old vinyl record.


End file.
